


A Shining Star Upon The Highest Bough

by meredyd



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Christmas, Female Friendship, Folklore, Gen, Gift Giving, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 22:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meredyd/pseuds/meredyd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even when you live in a story, it's hard to believe in some things coming true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Shining Star Upon The Highest Bough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KiaraSayre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiaraSayre/gifts).



> Thanks SO MUCH to Becky/cafecliche/ruffwriter@lj for the super-last-minute beta. &lt;3

Kinkan Town loved Christmas, Neko-sensei explained to the class, cutting through the quiet, pre-practice chatter, more than any other town in the whole world.

"A magical time of year," he said, flexing a paw over his head, eyes dreamy. "Anything can happen on Christmas...and you're more likely than not to _fall in love._"

"Did you hear that?" Pique asked Ahiru, nudging her in the shoulder. "Now's the perfect chance for you."

"Ohhh," Lillie exclaimed, rapturous, as she laced up her ballet slippers in graceful little strokes. "Ahiru, this will be your first Christmas in Kinkan, right? Everything is so beautiful. We'll let you help with the decorations for the town festival, but of course that may be a little difficult for you. You're _so_ clumsy!"

Ahiru felt her cheeks being pressed on both sides. She laughed a little and tried unsuccessfully to pry Lillie away from her face.

"It looks like a lot of fun," Ahiru said.

She considered to herself that Christmas was yet another thing her secret duck self had yet to learn about, but it couldn't be that hard - the town was already glowed, ruby candles with gently flickering flames nestled among the greenery in the windows of every house. It all made Ahiru feel so safe, and warm, and happy.

It was easy not to think about Princess Tutu and all the complications that went along with her other life, at a time like this.

"Class!" Neko-sensei cleared his throat. "It's time to begin practicing. No slacking off because your bellies are full of sweets. And if you do..."

"We have to marry you!" Ahiru exclaimed, proud she had remembered.

There was stock silence. Neko-sensei pawed at himself.

"You have to accompany me to the town festival and marry me in the middle of the square, midnight, on Christmas Eve."

"Oh," said Ahiru. She concentrated extensively on her pliées for the next hour and a half.

~*~*~*~*~

Ahiru spent the afternoon walking through town, watching the preparations for the festival begin in earnest. The market had been set up a few days before and the sight of it thrilled her every time she stepped outside. Red-roofed stall after red-roofed stall was covered in strands of delicate lights, and the smell of fir and cinnamon and the promise of snow swirled thick and heavy.

She was carrying a piece of gingerbread in one hand and a cup of cocoa in the other when she collided with a girl in a soft fur coat.  
Ahiru righted herself and felt the blush creep up, pink and scorching, from her neck to the rest of her face. The girl was Rue, and the deep green of her presumably expensive coat had been stained with the milky remains of Ahiru's drink.

"R-Rue!" Ahiru said, trying to clean up as many crumbs as quickly as she could without Rue noticing. "Are you shopping for presents too? I've already gotten most of mine. Are you getting something for Mytho? Are you..."

Rue stood up, brushing off her front and squinting down at Ahiru like she was a worm.

"I'm sorry I got your coat all dirty. It's really pretty."

"It was a present," Rue said, "from Mytho."

She was the most beautiful thing in the whole beautiful market, Ahiru thought to herself. Even without the coat. Her black hair was twisted up on her head, there were white tiny flowers in the complicated knotwork of her bun. Her eyes were dark and unreadable.

"Do you want to walk with me?" Ahiru asked. "Um, I don't have much money left, but I can buy you something to eat if you want."

"I suppose so," Rue said, examining an ornament, bright in her gloved hands.

"I really like that one," said Ahiru, peering over her shoulder. "It's an angel, right?"

"She brings presents to good children," said Rue, her voice low. "On Christmas Eve."

Rue placed the angel in Ahiru's palm. She turned it over, stroking the soft gold of its hair, the cool white cloth of its dress.

"I'll take it," Ahiru said brightly, to the elderly proprietor. She smiled, early evening light catching on her face.

"An excellent choice. Is this for someone very special?"

"Yes!" Ahiru paid, accepted the wrapped package, and fiddled with the ends of the bow. She and Rue walked in silence for a while, punctured only by the deliberate clack of Rue's shoes on the cobblestones. It was quickly getting dark - the day had gotten away from Ahiru when she hadn't been paying attention. Stalls were beginning to close up, and people were heading back to their homes.

"I should be going," Rue said.

"Wait!" Ahiru's smile scrunched her nose as she held out the package. Rue gazed at her, confused.

"You liked it so much," Ahiru explained. "She'll look so pretty once you light the little candles on her head. And her feet are almost like a ballerina's!"

"Why did you..." Rue began. She shook her head, one curl flying loose. Ahiru gazed at her with intense happiness. "Thank you," she finally said. "No one's given me anything like this before."

"Really?" Ahiru asked. "That's strange. Anyway, I should go! See you tomorrow! Merry Christmas!"

She scuttled through the streets, and made it back across town towards the dormitories before the sky went black, though every window was still brightly lit enough to see her home. Rue had looked so sad, she thought. Weren't presents supposed to make people happy? But then, Rue always looked a little sad.

Suddenly the thought she had been pushing away came back, unbidden. Heart shards. There hadn't been any, it seemed, since the town had become so distracted with the holiday. No unusual occurrences, no undead authors or secrets from Edel or even that many insults from Fakir. The strange peace had sat easy with her until now, but something in Rue's eyes had brought back the fear.

She gazed up at the window of Mytho and Fakir's room. It was still noticeably bare.

~*~*~*~*~

The festival fell at precisely midnight on Christmas Eve. The tree at the center of town was lit, Pique had explained, as it was every year, by a student from Kinkan Academy, chosen by the instructors. This year it was Reindeeretta, a music student. Ahiru wrapped her scarf tight around her face and watched, the crowd ooohed and ahhhed and then dispersed to dance and eat.

While Pique and Lillie were distracted, she took the chance to break away and find Mytho. He was sitting with Rue, though neither of them seemed to be looking at each other. Ahiru saw her brush his cheek with the back of her hand. Mytho's expression didn't change. They were a perfect scene, icy and lovely amid the holly flowers and strains of music. Ahiru's heart ached with something she wasn't sure how to name, though she couldn't tell if it was for Mytho or Rue or the pair of them.

Then someone tapped her on the shoulder, and the spell was broken.

"Move, idiot."

"Oh," Ahiru sniffed. "Hi, Fakir."

"Stop standing there staring like a fish and get out of the way."

He marched past her before she could reply and bent his head close to Rue's, their words harsh and soft. Then Fakir took Mytho by the arm and led him away. Ahiru stopped herself from following them only by the most self-control she could possibly exert. Rue met her eyes as she turned to leave. She had been spotted.

"Are you following me?" Rue asked.

"We're friends," Ahiru laughed, hand playing with the end of her braid. "We're bound to run into each sometimes."

Rue did not look convinced. Ahiru crossed the square and perched herself on the bench beside her, brushing a sprig of greenery out of her eye. "Are you having a good time?"

"Look," Rue said. "You should probably just go. I _was_ enjoying this time by myself."

"But you weren't by yourself!" Ahiru thought.

Another voice, a calmer one that she sometimes heard inside her, whispered: 'maybe she felt like she was. Maybe she always feels that way.'

"There must be something else I can do for her," Ahiru considered, hands clamped together in her lap as Rue pointedly ignored her. "Neko-sensei said that anything could happen, so..."

"I'll be right back," Ahiru said, waving as she scampered away. Rue looked confused but said nothing, and soon Ahiru had reached the safety of the alleyway behind the square. She knew what would happen before it did, although she couldn't say how. She wasn't unaware of who was pulling the strings, of course, but something about this was different.

There was none of the urgency, when she transformed, the feeling like feathers being plucked from her skin. This time, somehow, it was her decision entirely. She curled into herself, the light enveloped her body, but its warmth was borne from her own determination and no one else's. She turned her arms above her head, experimentally, before bounding away.

Tutu used the sky like a staircase. Every star lent her a step, wisps of smoke and the beginnings of snowflakes buoying her up above the town, above the roofs like gingerbread houses and the sparkling tops of trees. The moon lit behind her hair like a halo.

Below, people had seen her. There was an audible gasp from the festivalgoers, louder and more excited than the one earlier had been. Tutu smiled her gentle smile. She was glad they were happy, but these were not the faces she was looking for.

Rue's dark eyes met hers across the long distance. Enough of a distance that the freckles and blue eyes and white feathers of Tutu could not be distinctly noticed. Enough of a distance that what Rue saw was not someone to be feared, or hated.

"The angel," she said to herself, in a chill hush of breath.

Tutu glanced around her at the sea of enraptured faces. She closed her eyes. Very carefully, cloaked by moonlight, she raised her hands until they became wings.

~*~*~*~*~

Rue lay in bed, fingers gently making their way across every crevice and facet of Ahiru's gift. Her heart was heavy in her chest, she was too tired to fall asleep without being woken by nightmares.

Her whole life, she had pretended to know the stories the other girls did, pretended to believe them - the little fables of childhood she had been denied among so many other things.

Maybe they were still there for her, after all. She had met a pair of eyes earlier that told her it might be so.

It wasn't being loved, but it was something close enough for now.


End file.
